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July 18, 2008
Windows on Chicago
"When you go into a windowless room, it's exhausting,'' said [Chicago Art Institute] museum president James Cuno. "Light nourishes.''Not usually for sensitive artworks, though. The windows will be equipped with translucent UV-filtering scrims -- shadelike shields strong enough to protect the pieces but thin enough to give museum-goers a hazy but discernable reading of Millennium Park's soaring Pritzker Pavilion. At night, the screens can be adjusted to reveal the sparkle of the lakefront skyscrapers.
A second set of scrims are opaque, allowing the museum to "black out" the galleries when the museum is closed.
Just how much natural light will be allowed through the windows and skylights is based on a formula called a "cumulative exposure calculation," said museum spokeswoman Erin Hogan.
The allowance varies greatly depending on the medium, said Hogan. Prints, drawings, and photography are very light sensitive. Paintings generally have a higher light tolerance, and sculptures even higher still.
. . .
The 264,000-square-foot wing will increase the Art Institute's exhibit space by about a third. Cuno said the museum's current collection of contemporary art, plus commissioned temporary exhibits, will be enough to fill the space.With creations by Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Jackson Pollock and Andy Warhol, "we have lots of stuff,'' said Cuno.
"The problem is we didn't have enough space to show it all,'' he said.
There are two really good reasons for windowless museums - to protect art (yes, yes, museums ARE treasure-houses of art and libraries ARE treasure-houses of books -- get over it) and to show it. Walls of glass cut into hanging space in a BIG way, leaving the galleries less useful. So good museum designers -- and goodness knows Renzo Piano is a great museum designer -- use windows sparingly.
Cuno ends by listing a bunch of 2-d guys (yes, they did 3-d, too). But the estimate that the new wing at Chicago increases the space of the museum by a third doesn't mean it increases the amount of 2-d exhibition wall-space by a third.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at July 18, 2008 7:16 AM